The present invention relates to a device used to assist in musical ear training. The present invention also relates to an electronic device in the class of portable dictionaries or language translators as well as portable mini-computers.
The ability among musicians to recognize musical elements such as notes, intervals, chords, scales, melodies, rhythms and chord progressions is extremely important. In fact, ear-training courses are obligatory in most university music programs and are considered essential in a musician""s training. The traditional method used to train the ear is relatively obvious: a professor (for example) plays something on an instrument and the students write down what they hear. This method is most commonly used in classrooms or by a group of musicians studying together.
One type of prior art ear-training aid comes in the form of cassettes or compact discs (CDs) which are usually accompanied by an instruction or exercise manual and a finite number of ear-training exercises. Most of these exercises are relative pitch exercuses where musical elements are recognized in a relative way with respect to some reference. (Recognizing a note by itself without reference is called an absolute pitch exercise; a musician capable of recognizing musical elements in an absolute sense is said to have perfect pitch.)
An example of such an ear-training aid is found in Canadian Patent Application number 2,297,518, by Waind, laid open on Aug. 2, 2000, and entitled xe2x80x9cEar training methodxe2x80x9d. In Waind, an audio CD contains many tracks, each track having three segments. In the first segment is recorded a musical chord; in the second, a pause period of silence; in the third, a voice announcement of the correct answer as to what was played in the first segment. The CD is played in random-mode in a CD player. The system provides drills that teach music students to identify and recognize chords and notes by their sound. The system as disclosed in Wain, however, is limited to fixed exercises and changes cannot be made in order to customize or change the pre-set exercises, thereby affording only limited teaching content.
In recent years, computer software has been available for musicians who wish to (or are obliged to) study alone. Many systems known in the prior art attempt to address the drawbacks of these traditional computer/synthesizer apparatuses used to assist with musical ear training. U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,562 issued to Jeon on Aug. 13, 1996, teaches an apparatus for practicing playing an electronic musical instrument. This apparatus helps a student learning to play an electronic keyboard by displaying the musical score (notes and rhythmic values of a melody) of a selected piece of music on an LCD display and identifying, with lights, which keys have to be pressed to play the displayed melody; it can also test whether the user is pressing the right keys when a score is displayed. This apparatus is helpful in learning to play the keyboard, but is not meant to provide direct ear training exercises. Furthermore, it is necesesary to use this apparatus in conjunction with a keyboard.
However, an arrangement for using such computer software requires both a computer and a synthesizer, since high quality sound is not yet possible with current sound cards in computers. Many music departments or schools have music laboratories with fully functional computer/synthesizer arrangements where students can reserve times of exclusive access to the equipment. Such arrangements lack portability since the student is restricted to the computer laboratory. Furthermore, the price is prohibitive for most students to acquire such an arrangement for themselves.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,781,099 issued to Koike on Nov. 1, 1988, teaches a musical quiz apparatus. The apparatus generates a sound that corresponds to a chord; subsequently, the user tries to press the right keys on a keyboard that would play that chord on a piano. This apparatus also corrects the user""s answers. Although this apparatus does not require a separate keyboard, it is still quite large because of its own keyboard keys. Also, this apparatus can only be used by keyboard players to recognize or practice chords.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,405,153 issued to Hauck on Apr. 11, 1995, discloses a musical electronic game that initially plays a melodic sequence as a preview; then, when the game starts, a much longer melody is played which contains the previewed sequence. Scores are given if the user correctly identifies the occurrence of the previewed sequence during the playing of the longer melody. Although memorizing a melody (or part of a melody) is part of ear training, this device does not provide the opportunity to identify the melodic elements being played and does not play notes alone or intervals alone or chords, as is the case in ear training exercises.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,203,345 issued to Collin et al. on May 20, 1980, teaches an automatic visual teaching device for the learning of music or component parts thereof. A plurality of actuable switches is provided in order to visually display a desired coded chord. Although this apparatus is relatively more portable than others because of its lack of piano keys, it can only be used by keyboard players and can only be used to recognize chords
In contrast, some prior art systems have attempted to avoid the need for the use of a separate musical keyboard, or the limitation of instruction only those musicians who play the keyboard. U.S. Pat. No. 4,213,372 issued to Sasaki et al. on Jul. 22, 1980, describes an electronic type music learning aid including an input unit for the introduction of musical information such as duration and pitch of a tone, etc., in a digital fashion; a storage to and from which digital information can be written and read in sequence; a musical note display which provides a visual display of digital information read from the storage; and a sound generator which produces sounds in response to the digital information provided from the storage. U.S. Pat. No. 4,089,246 issued to Kooker on May 16, 1978, teaches a musical rhythm-tempo tutoring device which is similar to the Sasaki et al. patent. For example, the user inputs musical note durations and tempos that correspond to a melody by use of a keyboard. The apparatus then replays tones of the melody with the tempo and rhythmic values entered, thus providing an example of the melody or a tutoring that helps the user play the melody on his or her instrument. Lights are also used to give a visual aid to retaining the played rhythms and tempos.
Although these prior patents teach the selection and repetition of rhythm values and tempos using a keyboard, the apparatuses described do not quiz the user to identify the musical elements played and therefore do not truly provide ear training.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a portable electronic ear-training device that provides numerous features not found in traditional portable apparatuses. Such features include the provision of: an infinite number of randomly generated exercises; perfect pitch exercises; randomly generated, musically correct (mathematically calculated) chord progressions; full control of the level of difficulty of the exercises; testing capability (corrects the answers given by the user); and a choice of 127 different MIDI instruments in this novel musical teaching aid. All of these features are provided in a portable, aesthetically pleasing device that can fit in the palm of one""s hand.
According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a portable electronic musical device comprising: a housing; a processor contained within said housing for providing randomly generated customizable interactive music ear-training exercises to a user; input means connected to said processor and located on an exterior surface of said housing for receiving the user""s input selections; sound generating means connected to said processor for generating sounds to be used in said exercises; and display means located on an exterior surface of said housing for displaying musical exercise information.
Another aspect of the invention provides a method of musically ear training a user by way of a portable electronic musical device as described in the paragraph above, the method comprising the steps of: providing, by way of said processor, a plurality of customizable interactive musical exercises for selection by a user; receiving, by way of said input means, user-defined options related to a selected musical exercise; playing the selected musical exercise on the device by way of said sound generating means; prompting the user, by way of said display means, for an answer to the musical exercise; and providing the correct answer to the musical exercise to the user by way of said display means.
In another particular aspect of the invention, there is provided a portable electronic device for providing randomly generated customizable interactive music ear-training exercises, comprising: a housing having a keypad mounted on an upper surface thereof, a digital display located on said upper surface, and an electronic circuit board contained within said housing, said electronic circuit board comprising: a musical instrument digital interface chip for generating sounds to be used in musical exercises, a microprocessor, an amplifier, and a piggyback board for interpreting a user""s keypad selections. The electronic circuit board also comprises an earphone jack, an ac-adapter plug, and a battery compartment.
The device of the present invention can be employed by any musician (regardless of the instrument played) to practice any of the following musical exercises: recognizing notes, intervals, chords (triads and sevenths), scale degrees, chord progressions and melodic and harmonic dictation.
These together with other objects and advantages which will become subsequently apparent reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout.